Botha, P W

▪ 2007

“Die Groot Krokodil”; “The Great Crocodile” 

      South African politician (b. Jan. 12, 1916, Paul Roux, Orange Free State, S.Af.—d. Oct. 31, 2006, Wilderness, near George, Western Cape, S.Af.), as prime minister (1978–84) and president (1984–89) of South Africa, was fully committed to white supremacy, but he sought (with limited success) to find some middle ground between those who fully supported apartheid and the increasingly frustrated and militant nonwhite population. Although Botha's actions alienated many National Party (NP) supporters (who split away in 1982 to form the Conservative Party), his “reforms” were not enough to appease those seeking the end of apartheid. Botha studied law (1932–35) at the University of Orange Free State at Bloemfontein but left without graduating. He moved to Cape Province at age 20 to become a full-time organizer for the NP and was elected to Parliament in the 1948 NP landslide. Beginning in 1958 he held several portfolios, and in 1978 he succeeded B.J. Vorster as prime minister. Botha sought to weaken the black governments in Angola, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe and refused to cede South African power over South West Africa (later Namibia). At home his reforms—such as the policy of granting “independence” to various black homelands and a new constitution that conferred very limited powers to Asians and Coloureds—were meant to mollify international public opinion while dividing his nonwhite domestic opposition. He was elected South Africa's first president in 1984 by an electoral college selected from the white-dominated Parliament. Botha fell ill in 1989 and resigned his post as NP leader, but he did not yield the presidency until he faced opposition from within his own cabinet. In 1997 he refused to appear before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was fined and received a suspended sentence, but it was overturned on appeal.

* * *